Kidnapping

Kidnapping is a totally cool idea that should involve using your spymaster AND the intrigue mechanics, and instead is under the heading of marriage. It just sounds a lot cooler if i call it kidnapping, so i am going to and there’s really not much you can do about it. Sorry. This particular style of kidnapping will offer; matrilineal marriages to men who would not consider considering it in normal circumstances, alliances to ruling dynasties, and frequent inheritable claims. These are very good things.

The basic idea is that there are a lot of widows in the Crusader Kings 2 world, and they too can be taken advantage of sometimes. If you have a thriving dynasty and several daughters, you will have to second thoughts about marrying them off for an alliance. It’s what they do. Eloise, go marry the prince of Denmark for me, ok? Every time you send a daughter off to marry, i am asking you to mark the husband as a ‘person of interest’. (Learn how to use this UI feature.)

Once the husband is a person of interest, you can be confident that you will be told when he dies. The importance here is that the husband’s death will leave your daughter as a courtier in the realm she married into, and no one there cares about her! As long as she has a decent opinion of you, you will be able to invite her back to your court through the diplomacy options, and as a close family member you get a huge boost to the odds of her saying yes.

When your daughter returns to your court, she will bring with her any unlanded, underage children, even if they are not from her dynasty.

Once back in your court, your daughter can then be married off again, to create another alliance, or perhaps matrilineally for additional heirs if needed. She is back in play and at your disposal. Be aware that if she has brought any children with her, marrying her off to another court will send the children off as well.

While in your court, your daughter’s children are yours to control. Even though they are of a different dynasty, you can choose who educates them, and when they come of age, who marries them. Matrilineal marriages can be difficult to set up, but ‘kidnapping’ means you can matrilineally marry, say, a prince of the Holy Roman Empire.

A prince of the Holy Roman Empire has been 'kidnapped' and is in the King of Aragon's court.

Since matrilineal marriages cannot be turned down by members of your court, we will put good Prince Federigo to work.

A Matrilineal marriage is set up between two of the King's subjects.

We set up a matrilineal proposal between our half-sister, and our grandson. (Hello, Inbred!?)

Pick the Prince, duh.

And the king of Aragon gains48 prestige from a matrilineal marriage, along with an potentially lengthy alliance with the Holy Roman Empire!

A Prince of the HRE accepts a matrilineal marriage. That has to feel good.

Any number of claims can be gained this way, as the major ones will be inherited by this couple’s children, who will be of the house de Barcelona.It also thins out your opponents dynasty, and while Federigo here can still inherit lands, he cannot be granted any, unless by me, while in my court.

So i urge you ladies and gentlemen, keep track of those aging men you send your daughters off with. If your daughter outlives them, and she usually will, you will have assets just waiting to be seized. Invite her back to your court, and see if anyone joins her.

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